Record new vehicle sales volume in 2015 was powered largely by growth in the SUV/crossover category and further strengthening by pickup trucks. Flat car sales and declining minivan volume served to impede U.S. auto sales growth.

Prior to 2015, consumers, businesses, and government agencies had not combined to purchase and lease more than 17 million new vehicles since 2001. With 17.47 million sales in 2015, year-over-year volume jumped 6 percent and total new vehicle sales soared 67 percent compared with 2009, when auto sales plunged to their lowest depths during the recession.

Utilities
The rise of the utility vehicle in 2015 wasn’t sudden or surprising. A year ago, SUV/crossover volume jumped 12 percent in a market which grew half that fast, and the segment’s share of the industry rose to 32 percent. In 2015, however, as total new vehicle volume grew 6 percent, utility vehicle sales shot up 16 percent, increasing the segment’s share of the market to 35 percent as car volume fell from 47 percent to 43 percent.

That said, the newbies — Chevrolet Trax, Jeep Renegade, Honda HR-V, Fiat 500X, and Mazda CX-3, none of which generated any U.S. sales activity in 2014 — added 182,000 sales to the ledger in calendar year 2015. Their subcompact SUV/CUV class posted a collective 96 percent, year-over-year sales increase built in part due to their additional sales; in part due to growth of established models.

On the flip side, subcompact cars, never a supremely high-volume category in the United States, tumbled 6 percent in 2015. America’s most popular car in 2015 continued to be the midsize Toyota Camry, a nameplate which has now topped the passenger car leaderboard in 14 consecutive years. (The CR-V’s SUV leadership dates back to 2012.)

Trucks
The Ford F-Series was America’s pickup truck sales leader in 2015. However, for the first time since 2009, the F-Series was outsold by General Motors’ full-size twins: the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra. F-Series volume increased rapidly in the final quarter of 2015, but the GM twins saw their full-size truck market share rise to 38 percent from 36 percent in 2014. For the F-Series, sales in 2015 rose to the highest level since 2006. Chevrolet Silverado sales hit an eight-year peak while GMC Sierra sales climbed to the greatest total since 2005. The Ram truck line, meanwhile, achieved record high sales of 451,116 units, outperforming the previous record of 449,371 units from 2003.

Pickup truck sales were further bolstered in 2015 by greater availability of the new Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon, midsize pickups which arrived late last year. The Toyota Tacoma is still America’s best-selling non-full-size truck, but even the Tacoma sales increased as the competition for midsize truck buyers increased in 2015. The sub-category’s total volume jumped 41 percent and the Tacoma, Colorado, Nissan Frontier, Canyon, and Honda Ridgeline combined for 14-percent market share, up from 11 percent in 2014.

Truck-centric even without the addition of 114,507 Colorado and Canyon sales to the company’s U.S. sales tally, GM was even more so in 2015. The best-selling automaker in America reported a 5-percent overall sales increase in 2015 as the company’s four pickup truck lines contributed 30 percent of the volume thanks to the foursome’s 25-percent volume increase in 2015. GM’s other products combined for a 2-percent decrease. Obviously, GM is nothing like the force it was in the pre-recession era — GM owned 24 percent of the U.S. market as recently as 2007 — but the company’s market share in 2015 was just south of stable, slightly below 18 percent.

The maker of America’s best-selling vehicle line is also America’s best-selling new vehicle brand. Ford has led all brands for six consecutive years. In 2015, Blue Oval car sales slipped marginally, but utilities, trucks, and commercial vans propelled the Ford brand to a 5-percent increase.

GM leading all manufacturers, Ford topping all brands, the F-Series and Camry and CR-V on top — these are all entirely conventional elements of the U.S. auto industry. Hints of autonomous driving were more prevalent over the last year, from increasingly common lane keeping assist systems to more frequent installation of pre-collision systems. Though autonomy captures much of the public’s attention, the biggest technological advancement story evidenced by U.S. auto sales figures in 2015 may not have been an advancement at all. Volkswagen’s so called TDI Clean Diesels weren’t so clean after all. Following the eruption of the scandal in mid-September, Volkswagen couldn’t sell any of the vehicles that typically accounted for one-fifth of the brand’s volume in America. Already struggling before news of dirty TDIs broke, Volkswagen volume fell flat in an incentive-laden October; plunged 25 percent, a loss of nearly 8,000 sales, in November; and fell 5 percent in December.

Losers
Incidentally, the Volkswagen TDI’s chief rivals in the fuel economy race — hybrids — faced their own set of challenges in 2015. With fuel prices consistently low, typically more costly hybrids lack a crucial part of their appeal in comparison with their conventionally powered siblings. As a result, through the first 11 months of 2015, hybrid sales plunged 16 percent.

Americans registered more new vehicles in 2015 than at any point in history. This certainly doesn’t mean the list of losers isn’t a long one. Smart, Bentley, Dodge, Maserati, Jaguar, Fiat, Scion, and Buick all joined Volkswagen on the list of brands which sold less often in 2015 than in 2014.

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44 Comments on “This Is How U.S. Auto Sales Volume Hit a Record High in 2015...”

4Runner was only 3,000 shy of breaking that 100,000 mark. Hopefully 16 will debut a couple more SUVs, it’s a segment that really needs attention, the wrangler is possibly the only SUV that we have left that’s somewhat utilitarian, and I say somewhat because they’re still using plastic bumpers.

The 4Runner’s recent renaissance is a strange phenomena. Even before gas prices tanked, the mid cycle refresh pulled the 4Runner out of the 50k/year sales volume up to the 70k range. The mid cycle refresh did a lot to improve the interior (materials, looks) and exterior (looks on the TE, SR5), but the drivetrain stayed the same and the technology offered was pretty much the same. The price even shot up a bit in that time as navigation and touch screen became standard. Hopefully nearly hitting 100k is enough to justify keeping it around when CAFE regs really hit.

I think that the 8AT is the obvious upgrade over the reliable but widely spaced 5AT. The 3.5L would be more likely if the 4Runner went on a substantial diet as the lighter Tacoma seems to be the upper limit on what the 3.5L will effectively motivate.

100k units/yr for the 4Runner might be enough that they are willing to invest in weight reduction while keeping body on frame construction… or it might put it in no man’s land where they’d have to invest in aluminum construction to get the weight down on the US centric 4Runner but it would then deviate from the vehicles that it shares hard points. Tacoma is probably easier to justify heavy investment in 2025 as it outsells the 4Runner and it has bespoke assembly plants*. I don’t think throwing powertrains at it will get it to those strict standards.

To be honest, part of the reason I was OK going with the current 4Runner instead of waiting for the next generation is that I don’t know that the next generation is going to be what I want out of a 4Runner if it comes at all. I can see the writing on the wall that true niche vehicles are going to go the wayside or be assimilated.

*It does share with Tundra at Texas. Tundra will have to do the weight reduction thing as well, so that whole plant can be rolled over to Al if needed.

I sure hope the 4Runner doesn’t get the 3.5L, from what I’ve heard from taco owners you can feel those couple lbs of torque that truck lost.
I’m doing all over 20MPG in my 4Runner which is better than the real world of a lot of these CUVs.

Quentin, I think the 4Runners sales spike is somewhat warranted, it is alone in the midsize [Edit: non-lux] non-wrangler SUV segment, there are 0 competitors, and further to that the 4Runner still has a couple problems. The price was probably my biggest issue, it’s so small (for me) and I’m not particularly impressed with the smaller engine, and to pay over 30k for that wasn’t exactly a decision I made overnight. The lack of auto headlights in a 2016 still has me confused, it’s the first vehicle in 14 years that hasn’t had auto headlights.

I love the 5th window so much it’s almost an obsession and the large windows and great visibility is rare today which I’m happy about.

The 4Runner certainly isn’t tech laden considering how much it costs. Our dearly departed 2014 Rav4 Limited, which was replaced by the 4Runner after a head on collision, stickered for $33k and was equipped with auto dimming high beams, lane departure warning, blind spot monitoring, JBL stereo, memory driver seat, proximity unlock, push button start, and power liftgate. The 4Runner Trail Edition Premium w/ KDSS that I bought has none of those things and stickered for $41k.

I’ve been really hoping people would wise up to the distinction, their is nothing truckish about an escape, yet Ford tries to sell it under the same category that has encompassed everything from the Travelall to the S10 blazer?
There are still SUVs but it seems the only ones actively marketed are the Wrangler and the Escalade.

People don’t care that the Escape is an “SUV” that isn’t truckish at all. In fact, it’s better that the Escape isn’t truckish. People see a comfortable vehicle that has AWD and is good at hauling their kids and stuff across suburbia.

…and isn’t called a “wagon”. It’s an old meme around here, but I honestly wonder what would happen to sales if it were. Would the RAV4 really sell 300K units a year if Toyota called it the Camry Alltrac Wagon?

Only on forums like this does that have any relevance. No one knows what platform their car is on. They look at interior space, legroom, price, ability to haul the family and cargo. By those measures, the RAV4 is a midsizer. It weighs more than a Camry and carries its powertrain under the hood.

They are hatchbacks. The CR-V and Escape are almost the same size and shape as a Pacer, and that wasn’t a wagon. Unless it was an actual The Pacer wagon, but I’m talking about the more common Pacer hatchback.

The Travelall is a Wagon and was clearly marketed as such throughout its entire lifetime. The Scout was International’s SUV and marketed as such after Ford coined the term. Of course that didn’t mean what it does today as Ford first applied that term to the cab top equipped Broncos.

The entire North American market (US/Canada) is migrating from sedans to “utilities”. The current crop of utilities is closer to station wagons with a higher ride height than trucks.
Record sales in the US and Canada is good for the industry and all the stakeholders involved in the business.
With the increased use of “big data” every manufacturer focuses incentives on specific models, for their own strategic reasons. Strong incentives, low interest rates, moves a ton of units. With the customer being the ultimate winner.

just a few years ago leases wen’t available and you needed a 720 FICO. now leases are being offered for less than used car payments and buyers in the 500s are easily approved. the banks control the industry.

1973 was a record year, with 15.5 million units sold. America’s population was about 210M. Today it’s 310M.

85% of those cars were made by the Detroit 3, employing hundreds of thousands of Americans making decent wages. Together with millions of others of Americans in manufacturing, they could afford the cars. Of course there were fewer other consumer items competing for their (then higher) after tax income.

Now sales are being juiced with cheap loans and easy money. Let’s hope it lasts a long time, since most Americans today can’t afford new wheels.

Banks won!

One parallel–most of the ’73 were gas guzzlers that prematurely left the road. Many of today’s cars are bigger and thirstier than need be–cuz that’s what we want….now.

Seriously though see if you can did up some utility bills from say 2010 and compare them to 2015 ones. Official inflation somewhere in the 2% arena per annum so 10% in five years, but for S&G make it 15%. The cable I had went up over 1/3rd (int/basic cable late 2009: $44, int/basic cable: $66 before dropping it in Nov 2015, or 40%) and my electric went up about 1/3rd ($19 in 2014, $30 currently as of Dec). I’m seeing some “minimal” inflation indeed.

Balancing your utility bill inflation is your gas spend, which is half what it was 5 years ago.

The business you know best is cars, right? New car pricing has been pretty flat for the last decade or two. Used cars went up quite a bit in 2009-2011, but that was because they were abnormally depressed by the great recession.

Commodities deflation is incidental and could theoretically rise again at any time. Your bills won’t automagically go down when this occurs.

Comcast has no right to raise rates 40%, they do it because they are “in the club” and engage in monopolistic, or duopolistic behavior if there is actually one other competitor (i.e. Verizon). There was a time when companies were broken up if they got to such a point, but it seems this time has past.

The electric company is cute too, they “compete” through deregulation but there are four “fees” on my bills. They only compete on one of the four (“supply” IIRC) and its within a cent or two per kWH per utility co. Distribution, transmission, and my favorite, customer charge are non-negotiable (in fact I think the bill said “transmission” rate is regulated by the feds). Many months the “supply” part of the bill is less than the “customer charge”, and who regulates the charge? Why the Commonwealth of course. Thanks for having my back, Harrisburg. Ten dollars/mo in the grand scheme of things isn’t the end of the world, but percentage wise YoY? I can see why 26% of adults have no savings.

https://www.creditdonkey.com/average-american-savings-statistics.html

Truthfully its not the business I know best but I have some resale knowledge, yes. In order to agree with your statement I’d have to sit and crunch some calculations which I don’t have the time to do right now. Here’s what I can say off of the top of my head: the 2004-2008ish period saw the end of many legacy models and motors, esp from the Detroit 3. Legacy meant: cheaper to build/sell, cheaper resale due to lack of used demand, usually better reliability used. We all know what happened next but what many don’t realize is for many mfgs whole new platforms and drivetrains came online which mean the automaker’s costs went up significantly outside of the overall market conditions. So while yes you might have a crop of say MY12s starting to hit the block, many of them will lack the tried and true reliability aspect of an MY01 in 2005/6. One must also factor in decreased materials or labor quality on some models. Derek famously reported on the MY13 MKZephyr’s QC issues… did the 98 Conti or 03 Town Car have similar assembly or materials issues when they were release? We also can’t forget wear items, have you priced tires on the giant 19in wheels these days? Its enough to give you a nosebleed. Pay more, get less, and love it prole.

Again I would need some data to back this up but for the most part I don’t want to be buying anything that’s used right now. The stuff I like to buy used is getting long in the tooth and the new-used stuff is questionable. The business model I am seeing becoming commonplace is leasing, but with leasing you give up not only equity but also incidentals while accepting mileage limitations (which are a total sham) and cosmetic features damage (the dealer can ding you for minor stuff on *their* car at lease return whereas on trade it would be ignored).

One of my siblings is in the market and due to his life changes will require a vehicle literally in the next few days. I accompanied him to a Subaru dealer on Sat and was a bit taken aback, not by the product or salesperson specifically but the process this dealer employed (no talk of trade, no negotiation at all, would not let us see the sales contract, would not run credit unless there was an oral agreement to purchase). I’m thinking Whiskey Tango Foxtrot do you want the sale or not? He didn’t seem to interested which I found odd. My advice was Subaru or Camry for resale purposes. He has it in his head Hondas suck in the snow we get around here from his gf’s Civic (I really have no idea myself having not driven a Honda in snow for a decade). Pickup trucks cost too much and other products such as Fusion or say 200 to throw out some Detroit 3, I don’t trust new for both reliability and resale reasons. For my money >20K its Mustang GT, Lexus something off the block, or pickup truck for the debt loaded win. Nothing else really appeals to me.

I would be really interested in the answer to this:
What percentage of new vehicles were sold for cash, or 36 – 48 month terms to people with good credit vs. what percentage were sold with terms of 60 months plus and/or to people with poor credit?

John, “sold for cash” must be defined more clearly because a dealership recognizes a “sold for cash” transaction when the buyer self-finances with a bank or credit union, as well as paying with personal funds.

Financing on terms can be done with a financial arm of the automaker, or, through a dealer+financial institution arrangement, both of which result in some kind of kickback to the dealer.

Poor credit is no longer a consideration these days, hence sub-prime loans. Poor credit may affect the down-payment and APR a buyer has to forfeit, but those are the trade-offs.

I expect repos to increase starting in 2016. Too many lay-offs still coming our way. We ain’t seen nothing yet.